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Some big news coming up about a Canadian broadcaster and an international distribution deal for the film but for now, please enjoy film star David Marsden turning the tables on film Director Roger King and interviewing him for www.nythespirit.com

There will be a special screening of I Am What I Play at The Carlton Cinema in Toronto on Friday, May 6th. It’s a fundraiser for the University of Toronto radio station, CIUT. Film star David Marsden and Director Roger King will attend and do a Q & A after the screening. We’re happy to support free form college radio. Tickets and info at the link below:

We have neglected you, the faithful blog reader and for that, deep apologies. Our excuse is we’ve been screening the film and arranging other screenings. In fact, we got really clever and created an I Am What I Play Screenings page right on this site. No more guessing where the film might be playing. You can visit the Screenings page any time to get the up-to-the minute report.

We had a great time at the Beacon International Film Festival in late September. Beacon is a 90 minute train ride from New York City and they’ve carved out a nice artistic community there. I Am What I Play opened the festival this year and we encourage film fans to keep an eye on Beacon in future years.

We had another screening in Toronto on October 15 as part of the Reel Independent Film Festival. It was at the same theater as our Canadian premiere earlier this year – The Royal Cinema. Director Roger King and film subject David Marsden were in attendance and hosted a spirited Q & A after the screening.

Roger went to high-school in Kitchener-Waterloo (about an hour from Toronto) and will host a special presentation of the movie on October 29th at the beautiful rep cinema, The Princess Theater. Tickets only available at this link:

Our Canadian premiere took place Friday May 8 in Toronto at the Royal Cinema. We were the opening film of the Canadian Music Week (CMW) Film Festival and we had a great turnout at the theater. This premiere was well-timed as CMW’s two-day radio conference had just wrapped up so a lot of radio industry titans were already in town. Many of them attended the screening and the film was very well received. Also in attendance was one of the film’s 4 subjects, David Marsden, who took part in an entertaining Q & A session after the film. We look forward to more screenings in Toronto in the near future.

Well, we are happy to announce both our American and Canadian premieres. I Am What I Play will screen at the Boston Independent Film Festival on April 26th at the historic Somerville Theater. Here’s the film page on their website with ticket information:

And then on May 8th in Toronto, I Am What I Play will be the opening film of the film festival portion of Canadian Music Week (CMW). This screening will take place at The Royal Cinema on College St. Another great venue. CMW is kind of the South x South West of Canada so we are thrilled.

Had some fun last week on Sirius XM Canada as a guest on the Todd Shapiro show. Lots of talk about I Am What I Play and being a radio DJ (as well as the voice-over industry). The interview starts around the 44:00 mark.

In December, David Marsden returned to the station he essentially created, The Edge 102.1 (CFNY) for a lengthy chat with former and now current again CFNY radio personalities Alan Cross and Scot Turner. At one point during the visit, they talked about I Am What I Play. You can listen to it here:

Happy 2015! I realize I have not been very diligent about updating this blog. Facebook is where the action is these days but I have to remember not everyone is on Facebook so will be more on top of updating here as well.

U.S. distribution news coming soon! In the meantime, I want to post some odds ‘n ends, starting with this below. David Marsden has left The Rock 94.9 and now does his shows live on his own site: www.nythespirit.com

Here was a tribute to David last month in Canadian Parliament, from MP Erin O’Toole:

Since completing I Am What I Play, I’ve been outreaching to the radio community with an interest in discussing the key theme of the film: disc jockey creative control. I continue to be curious about who is still out there on the dial, doing radio in the spirit of free form so a couple of weeks go, I dropped into Toronto radio station Indie 88 for a chat with Program Director Adam Thompson.

Indie 88 burst on the Toronto radio scene a little over a year ago with the mandate to give a voice to truly independent music. I wanted to get Adam’s thoughts on programming music, his approach to radio and get a sense of the amount of freedom he gives the DJ’s.

Three encouraging things:

1)Adam is clearly a radio guy. I mean that in the most positive way. He clearly knows the business but is coming at it from deep love and knowledge of the music, rather than from some kind of marketing and PR background. He is a decade younger than me but grew up a radio die-hard.

2)The DJ’s have input into the music they play. The station definitely thinks in terms of shows, not shifts. As the name implies, the station is independently owned – family, not corporate. There are DJ’s on the show who program their show entirely and most at the station are involved in the music programming.

3)The music is not narrow-casted. Of course, they have a target audience but they program a wide spectrum of artists.

As any good radio station should, they are slowly but surely integrating themselves into the Toronto community and giving a voice to indie artists and events. And hey, they even threw it open to the general public to not only audition to be the voice of the station but to vote on the finalists once the field was narrowed a bit: http://indie88.com/jen-is-the-new-voice-of-indie88/

As a voice talent agent, how can I not love this?

It will be interesting to keep an ear on Indie 88 in the next couple of years as they gain more of a foothold in the Toronto scene. Will the reins tighten a bit on the format or will they continue to push forward in “the spirit of radio”?

This is the first in a series of pieces exploring radio programs and stations where the music programming is unpredictable and the DJ’s are given freedom. We are interested in hearing from you. Do you host a radio show or work at a station that fits this description? Or maybe you listen to one? Drop us a line: distraction@distractioninc.com

We’d love to publish your blog piece about the show or station. We aim to spread the word about current radio operating in the spirit of “I Am What I Play.”